My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

Mission Log – Solar Day 101

Good morning, my diary! I'm quite busy today, mainly because my space suit is the only one I can use in the habitat! Tingting said that after applying the patch on the space suit yesterday, he still had to wait for it to completely cure, so it seemed that the pony team members would not be able to go out today. So in addition to cleaning the solar panels, I also have to drive for a long time today!

Today’s chores: Put the RTG back into the hole; go out and walk around the weather station to see what can be repaired; go to the farm to check the condition of the crops; and also bring back some quartz for Fireball, his inventory Almost finished eating.

There's something on this shopping list. Firewood, rice, oil, salt, plutonium, quartz and so on.

Fortunately, I no longer have to worry about what new tasks NASA will assign me today. Since yesterday's group photo had to be postponed while the ponies were busy getting groomed at Watney's Grooming Centre, Pathfinder is still busy uploading the backlog of files. (I don’t blame them for this, after all, who let me run the most famous high-end nursing home on the planet.) So until the upload is completed, I can put aside the constraints of NASA and do whatever I want.

I have to say this feels really exciting. The difference between involuntary interruption of communication and voluntary interruption of communication is huge (now you understand what I mean?). Now Earth is still at my beck and call if I need to contact them; but they can't be bothered with intelligent questions about the condition of alien plant roots or the efficiency of magic crystals in converting light energy into heat. Me.

I just read Dr. Shields' email.大意是当她发现文卡特没有听从她的意见时，她立刻礼貌地问候了他家祖宗十八代；另一方面，她也已经申请了交流机会，会抽时间跟蜓蜓聊一聊有关她(蜓蜓) Views on the protection of rights and trust between doctors and patients.此外她也保证，如果文卡特或是任何其他人（就算是泰迪桑德斯也会一视同仁）再胆敢蠢蠢欲动胡搅蛮缠，她就立刻递交辞呈，并召开新闻发布会把这破事给抖出来；到Once public opinion ferments, I will hear about it even if there is no Pathfinder on Mars.

Erin Shields may indeed be a mind-reading witch doctor, but I think she's a pretty nice person.

"Watney is dead."

As soon as he finished speaking, a large stack of printed materials neatly arranged with alligator clips crashed onto Venkat's desk. The raving victim in front of me is Sue Douglas, director of the JSC Astromaterials Research Laboratory, who is responsible for all matters related to planetary geology. She is generally responsible for the life and death rights of the mineral samples collected by the Ares 1/2 mission, as well as those hastily rescued mineral samples from the Ares 3 mission that unfortunately aborted midway; whether many research laboratories can obtain these unreliable mineral samples The price of experimental materials depends on whether she is willing to show mercy.

"Good morning, Ms. Su, you look good today." Venkat looked cheerful. "I feel very honored that you came to the appointment on time, although I don't remember anyone making an appointment during this time on the schedule. When you were waiting outside just now Are you satisfied with my secretary’s reception?”

"Again, Watney is dead," Sue replied, "and so are those adorable colorful aliens dominating news headlines around the world today."

"I heard it just now." Venkat still answered patiently, "Can you please explain the reason?"

Ms. Su picked up the heavy report again, flipped through a few pages, and then turned the entire report over and held it in front of Venkat. Above is a photo of Watney's Cave Farm, taken from the perspective of the alien airlock that was inexplicably installed. It looked like half of the glittering gems on the cave's roof were emitting bright light, illuminating the long rows of lush dark green crops in the soil below. The remaining crystals climbed up the cave wall, and there were a few single seedlings that completely penetrated the cave from bottom to top at strange angles - one of them penetrated straight into the center of the cultivated land.

"The view is spectacular," Venkat responded, "What then?"

"Then?" Ms. Su replied angrily, "This is just a lava tube. It has to be. Of course, it is far from the largest or longest lava tube we have found on Mars. , but how it connected to a volcano of such a small size may one day become someone's doctoral thesis. Apparently it was once submerged in water for hundreds of thousands of years, maybe millions of years. To be precise It should be boiling mineral water. When the initial lava flow cooled, these minerals were deposited in all the remaining caves, first forming a native quartz covering layer, and then growing the crystals we see now. .”

"That's right." Venkat shrugged, "After all, I major in physics and don't understand geology."

"You are NASA's top boss in the Mars field." Su replied, "That means you should be able to understand why we knew there were lava tubes on Mars before."

"I forgot about it a long time ago, let me tell you."

"Because we have already seen them, in the photos taken by orbiting satellites." Su turned another four pages of the report and pointed a finger at a photo of the Tharsis region taken by satellites. "And the reason we see them in orbit is because they've collapsed. Venkat, you know, lava tubes always end up collapsing, and they're notorious for that. They're brittle and brittle." , and it leaks like a sieve, after all, this is the fundamental reason why geodes can be formed inside it.”

Venkat grabbed the report and started flipping through it. "You mean the roof on Mark's farm might collapse?" he asked.

"Wrong, that's not the case." Su replied, "It would be easier for him if it was just like that. This is a case of leaving the cave there and not caring about it." She took back the report from Venkat and turned to the corresponding one. Venkat recognized a page full of formulas, "However, the cave is now filled with air at a full atmosphere of pressure. According to Watney's previous log, the cave itself is only at the end of the airlock and at the very end (according to The guess is that the location where this ancient lava tube meets the ancient magma chamber is completely airtight."

"So Venkat, we can do the math now. The cave walls are known to be loose and porous. According to our guess, the only reason why there hasn't been a leak yet is because there is a layer of permafrost and compacted soil at the top of the cave. The regolith provides protection. But as the temperature of the system gradually increases, these protective layers become more unstable and eventually leaks occur. Do you know what happens after that?"

"I don't know. What will happen?"

"It's like the airlock of the living cabin. What else do you think!?" Su poked at the pile of formulas in front of him again, "The only difference is that the total amount of gas this time is at least fifty times the original. , and the leaking hole will be much smaller than before... Of course, this is just the beginning." She then found another bunch of formulas, "The air will move at the speed of sound - at least three hundred and sixty per second. meters - ejected from the initial crack, maybe even faster. In the process, the huge force will quickly erode the side walls of the crack, causing faults, cracks and other types of damage."

"Then, once the air pressure on both sides of the inside and outside reaches equilibrium, any remaining structures around the crack will begin to collapse due to losing the support of the previous thick layer of air cushion. The crack will continue to spread, and the roof of the cave will collapse, with large chunks Blocks of earth and rocks poured down."

"In short," Ms. Su closed the report and slapped it on the table in front of Venkat, "the cave will explode first and then collapse. By the way, any creature in the cave will Killed by hurricane-level air currents, rapid decompression, or massive rockfalls. The choice is yours!" She paused for a moment, sighed, and then added, "Even if they survive, they definitely won't. There might be another chance to restore the farm. Venkat, it's not just a hole in the ceiling: the ceiling simply doesn't exist."

Venkat nodded. "Okay, I believe you," he said, "but now I have two questions to ask: How do we respond to this, and how much time do they have before something happens?"

Ms. Su just shrugged. "It could happen tomorrow," she said, "or it could wait until Ares 3B arrives. We don't know enough about the composition of the soil above the cave, nor what's going on inside and below. We do have Watney's Analysis," she pushed the report in front of her, "but the main purpose of his analysis at that time was to apply to the urgent task of growing crops, so it was not applicable."

"Do you want him to resample?"

"Don't!" Su shouted hurriedly, "The soil in the cave has been contaminated now, and the last thing we want to happen is to let something disturb the soil at the top of the cave. Absolutely not." She said, "Ideal In this case, what we want to do is to let the alien use the method she used to seal both ends of the cave to process the entire cave, so that the entire geode is completely airtight. In this way, the risk of the cave explosion can be completely eliminated , as long as they are careful not to break the outer crystal during subsequent mining operations, there will be no problem.”

Venkat looked a little surprised and asked, "What is a mining operation?"

Sue rolled her eyes at him. "Venkat, it seems like you haven't gotten enough sleep lately?" she asked, "Have you carefully read your conversation record?"

"No." Venkat admitted quite readily, "Did I miss anything?"

"God knows." Ms. Su's resentment was about to burst. "But judging from the current situation, you have missed two things. Those aliens use gems or mineral crystals like quartz to drive their technology. And that dragon also eats gems. Without the quartz crystal, his food supply will be completely cut off."

"Okay." Venkat said and took some notes on his notepad. "I will talk to Mark tomorrow to discuss whether this is indeed feasible. Are there any other temporary precautions?"

"If feasible, you can try to reduce the air pressure in the cave to ten pounds per square inch." Su replied, "This is equivalent to the local air pressure in La Paz, Bolivia. Crops can still be grown in that place. In addition, pay attention to monitoring the temperature. The lower the temperature within the allowable range for crop growth, the better. The lower the internal temperature and the smaller the difference in internal and external air pressure, the more buffer time we can have before the system completely collapses. In addition, we must also tell them that we must Be careful to avoid any gem crystals that penetrate the geode in the cave. Whether they are vertical or horizontal, don’t move them.”

"The most important thing is to tell them to be gentle when cutting the ore crystals from the inner wall of the cave. Any bending, pushing, pulling, twisting, etc. are strictly prohibited. Either cut it directly, or just don't move it at all. As for the outer wall of the geode , generating shear force during operation is the most fatal situation.”

"No problem." Venkat nodded, "Can we do some tests in the laboratory?"

Ms. Su also nodded, "Of course, I have some models on hand that can be put into the pressure chamber to simulate the situation. We have done computer modeling analysis before, but the data used is incomplete."

"Please submit the written proposal to me before tomorrow morning." Venkat said, "You will be able to get the grant by the end of next week at the latest, so you can start preparing to purchase researchers and necessary materials now." He Pointing to the report, he added, "In addition, this material must be reviewed by Director Sanders, and a copy must be sent to Hermes' Chief of Staff Lewis via email. Teddy has the right to know about this, and Lewis, as Ares 3 Geological experts may also be able to provide feedback."

"Okay." Seeing that she was done, Ms. Su nodded and turned to leave.

"Wait a minute," Venkat said at this time, "don't you want to know what I have been reading recently that made me almost forget about the Mars Conversation Record and other reports?"

He turned the computer screen around so that Su could see what was displayed on it. The title of the document that was opened read: Introduction to the Principles of Magic and Its Relation to the Laws of Physics - Astronaut Starlight Glimmer.

"You will never believe it," Venkat's eager words were filled with excitement that could not be concealed. "How eager I am to understand the content of this article. Probably except for your department, I There are thousands of scientists here from all parts of NASA vying for this opportunity."

"They all wanted to read this paper yesterday." Venkat sighed, "I have to talk to Starlight tomorrow, so this should be my homework for now. I have to work hard on it. "He pointed at the screen and said, "So that you won't be able to ask even the stupidest questions."